The home side came out all guns blazing, and could have taken the lead in the first two minutes when Gavin Swankie got in behind the visitors' defence and clipped a delicate shot inches wide of the post.
Arbroath continued to dominate, and Swankie came close again when his lob from a tight angle forced David Crawford into evasive action when he turned the ball away from goal as it dipped towards the back post.
After half an hour Queens gradually found their feet, but their only shot on target during the first half was a long-range effort from Paul Harvey which failed to trouble Mark Peat.
The visitors came on leaps and bounds after the half-time break, and created the best scoring chance of the match after 57 minutes when Bryan Felvus took advantage of Arbroath's sloppy midfield play and raced towards goal with just Peat to beat. However, the Abroath keeper pulled off a fantastic save to deny the little striker.
One minute later Reilly entered the fray in place of Jon Voigt and three minutes later, with his first touch of the ball, he scampered across the 18-yard line and placed a lovely left-foot strike into the bottom corner before racing joyfully towards the home support.
The visitors didn't give up hope, but their lack of fire power and Abroath's dogged determination ensured the points remained at Gayfield.